Library Notes
Rebecca Hyde – August 28, 2011


Have you dreamed of being a writer or are you just curious about how writers write? Then follow the example of the armchair traveler: read about the experiences of other people. You may become a better reader, if not a writer.

The following three books are not standard “how to write” manuals. They are engaging if you accept writing as a road to self-discovery, as a way of truth-telling, or turning life into art.

Roger Rosenblatt is an essayist, playwright, and novelist. He is also a professor who teaches English and writing. His book, “Unless It Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing,” is a narrative of one semester in his “Writing Everything” classes at Stony Brook University. In his postscript letter to his students, Rosenblatt offers parting advice: Write as if your reader needed you desperately, because he does; both you and the human heart are full of sorrow, but only one if you can speak for that sorrow and ease its burdens and make it sing.

Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird” describes the reality of a writer’s life: feeling overwhelmed by the task, letting perfectionism ruin your writing, having writer’s block. As Lamott’s father told her ten-year-old brother, who was struggling to write a report on birds, “Just take it bird by bird.”

Jill Conway is an autobiographer and former Smith College president. In “When Memory Speaks,” she examines the work of memoirists over the centuries, reflecting on the different ways men and women narrate their lives and why autobiography is so popular with modern readers and writers.

The fourth book is about writing a journal: “A Trail Through Leaves: The Journal as a Path to Place,” by Hannah Hinchman. Using observation and drawings, Hinchman records the details of her life. We are shown how to patiently observe and enjoy our surroundings.

Here are several more books about the experience and craft of writing. In the classic “Writing Down the Bones,” Natalie Goldberg offers help in “freeing the writer within.” Susan Witting Albert’s “Writing from Life: Telling Your Soul’s Story,” is based on her workshops on “life-writing” for women. In “Write the Story of Your Life,” Ruth Kanin examines the popularity of autobiography and also instructs through examples and suggested readings. Evelyn Nichols and Anne Lowenkopf offer practical advice in “Lifelines: A Guide to Writing Your Personal Recollections.”

Library Notes
August 21, 2011
Sara Grajek

“If you look the right way, you can see the whole world is a garden,” wrote Frances Hodgson Burnett in The Secret Garden. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, gardening is not a hobby for the faint of heart. Blink and nature will take over. Gardens can also produce some of the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen. The following fictional books will take you into the world of gardens, families, and whimsy and perhaps remind you why you garden. Check one out at Rowan Public Library today!

Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells is set in Bascom, NC, a fictional town but distinctively southern. Claire Waverly creates scrumptious dishes using edible flowers that affect the eater in unusual ways. Her garden is known throughout the town and the apple tree is rumored to grow a very special kind of fruit. Sydney, her younger sister, traveled the country for years but then silently returned one day with her 10 year old daughter. As with many stories, all is not as it seems as Sydney was running away from her abusive boyfriend. Fans of Alice Hoffman will enjoy Allen’s books, and as an added bonus, readers can find recipes from the novel on her website www.sarahaddisonallen.com.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton not only takes place in a garden, but throughout multiple time periods. Several characters take turns telling the story of a young girl’s mysterious disappearance from an English estate in the early 1900’s. Each part of the story becomes a piece that ties the mystery together – the aunt who spends her entire life searching for her, the fairy tales woven through the book, the stately estate with the garden hidden in the center. Morton admits to the parallels of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodges Burnett in her novel but was actually first inspired by a true “forgotten garden” in Cornwall, England, “The Lost Garden of Heligan.”

The Secret Garden was one of the last books Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote in her long career. A highly celebrated author, she was considered the J.K. Rowling of her time. Little Lord Fauntleroy was her most popular work, published in serial form in a magazine and highly anticipated by her readers before each publication. The Secret Garden was also published in serial form, released in American Magazine in 1910 before being compiled as a book in 1911. In the story, Mary Lennox discovers the door to a garden that has not been touched in ten years. As she starts to work the garden, she also makes friends with other children at Misselthwaite Manor including her mysterious cousin Colin.

Rowan Public Library will be continuing its centennial celebration with a special edition of the Book Bites Book Club. Join us Tuesday, September 13 at 6:30 pm, for a book discussion of The Secret Garden in the Stanback Room in Salisbury. Also make plans to come again on Tuesday, September 27 at 6:30 pm for a free viewing of the movie, The Secret Garden, with popcorn and lemonade!

Library Notes / August 5, 2011
Dara L. Cain


Travel the World through Childrens' Books

Reading provides your child with a wonderful opportunity to travel through books without leaving the comforts of home. Below are some noteworthy books that will open up your child’s mind to different people, places, and things. An introduction to geography, language arts, and cultural heritage can be explored in these great titles:
Wouldn’t it be fun to explore animal sounds with your child in other languages? In the book Everywhere the Cow Says Moo by Ellen Slusky Weinstein your child can learn how to say dog, frog, duck, rooster, and cow in four languages: English, Spanish, French, and Japanese. As you read the book you will be surprised to learn that the cow sounds the same in all four languages. This is a fun read that includes a list of the animals with their corresponding sounds, spellings, and pronunciations in each language.

A classroom of children receives gifts of clothing from aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents living around the world in the story The World Turns Round and Round by Nicki Weiss. Some of the special gifts received are cowboy boots from an aunt in Colorado, a furry hat from a babushka in Russia, a dashiki from a mjomba in Kenya, and a sari from a chachi in India. At the end of the book the classmates are shown wearing their gifts and looking at a globe. Included is a map to introduce the countries discussed in the book and a small glossary with pronunciations and definitions.

Have you ever met a finicky child who didn’t want to eat his food! In the story The King’s Taster by Kenneth Oppel the cook and his dog Max encounter a fussy young king who refuses to eat the cook’s food. In an attempt to satisfy the king the cook and Max travel the world in search of the most scrumptious delicacies including french fries from France, pizza from Italy, and chilli tacos from Mexico. The story will have you laughing when Max finally discovers what has been ruining the king’s appetite and a cook’s promise to tell the king’s mother if he doesn’t eat his food.

Calabash Cat is a West African cat whose curiosity leads him on a journey to find out where the world ends in the story Calabash Cat and his Amazing Journey by James Rumford. Each time Calabash Cat thinks he has found the end of the world he meets another animal: a camel, a horse, a tiger, and then a whale who takes him further. The cat travels through a desert, the grasslands, a jungle, and an ocean but it is not until he meets a wise eagle who carries him into the sky and shows him a world without end. This story is beautifully illustrated in the “calabash” style engraving from the African country of Chad.

Baby mouse has “gone missing” and mother mouse can not find him anywhere in the story Gorilla, Gorilla by Jeanne Willis. In pursuit of her baby a big, scary gorilla chases after mother mouse shouting “Stop!” In fear that she will be eaten mother runs far away to China, Australia, the Arctic, and western America in hopes of evading Gorilla and finding Baby Mouse. Young children reading the story will be delighted to learn that Gorilla never planned to eat Mother Mouse but was only trying to return Baby Mouse safely to her. This story provides a great introduction to various countries, landscapes, and types of transportation for your child to discover.

Library Notes
July 29, 2011
Erika Kosin

One World, Many Stories Summer Reading Program

As the Rowan Public Library’s Summer Reading Program winds down, it is nice to look back and reflect on the great time we had. With this year’s theme, One World, Many Stories, we encouraged both children and teens to travel the world from home through books. While our library is fortunate to have tremendous support from both the Friends of the Rowan Public Library and the County, allowing us to fund all of the wonderful programs we offer, the emphasis is on the children reading throughout the summer. We know that many children view reading as a chore they have to complete for school, but at the library, we say reading is for fun, that is why we do not require children to read a certain list of books, instead we tell them to read what they want during the summer. Also, by allowing the children to choose the books they want to read, whether fiction, non-fiction or a picture book, they learn that the library has books that cater to each individual taste.

Those who work with children know that the simple act of reading keeps their brains engaged during the summer months and will help them stay ahead at school. In fact, studies have shown that those students who read over the summer months return to school better prepared and those who have not read tend to slip back one to two years on their reading ability. With the knowledge of how important it is for children to read over the summer, the library does it’s best to encourage children to read and so far we have seen many children doing just that. This is done by helping children keep track of the hours spent reading and rewarding them for turning in those hours in 5 hour increments, thus creating an incentive to keep reading in a fun atmosphere.

Encouragement to read does not end at the elementary school level at Rowan Public Library, we also offer summer reading programs for the students in Middle School and High School, but their program follows a different format. While this summer’s programs are ending, the teens wrapped up their final program on July 28th with a cookout at the South Branch, and the children’s programming also ended the last week in July, we do encourage everyone to keep reading until school starts at the end of August. Summer Reading 2011 may be winding down, but the staff at Rowan Public Library are already looking towards next summer’s installment and hope to see everyone back and some new participants in June of 2012.

Children ages 1 through fifth grade can turn in their hours through August 12th and our prize basket raffle winners will be announced on August 15th.